Every bit of news about Space X and Elon Musk sounds more and more like a James Bond villian, so much so that we can definately expect Space X to relocate to an island shaped like a skull. Joking aside, Space X is attempting something truly difficult, to land their reusable Falcon 9 rocket on a floating ocean platform on December 16. 

The concept behind the Space X's Falcon 9 rocket is that nothing needs to be jetisoned as it reaches orbit, not only that it is capable of ascending and descending. Musk claims this can reduce the cost of space flight by 100 fold and make Mars colonization possible.

Space X's Falcon 9 has already completed two soft ocean landnigs before, but a floating plaftform is another challenge. Musk shared photos of the landing platform via Twitter late last month.

"Autonomous spaceport drone ship. Thrusters repurposed from deep sea oil rigs hold position within 3m even in a storm," Musk tweeted about the platform on Nov. 22. "Base is 300 ft by 100 ft, with wings that extend width to 170 ft. Will allow refuel & rocket flyback in future," he added in another tweet.

"Grid fins are stowed on ascent and then deploy on reentry for 'x-wing' style control," Musk tweeted on Nov. 22. "Each fin moves independently for pitch/yaw/roll."

Even with all that confidence Musk predicted a 50% chance of sucess for the first ocean landing.

"There are a lot of launches that will occur over the next year," Musk said at the conference, which was called "AeroAstro at 100" and celebrated 100 years of MIT aerospace research. "I think it's quite likely that one of those flights, we'll be able to land and refly, so I think we're quite close."

The fifth of 12 SpaceX cargo missions to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract is scheduled to launch at 2:31 p.m. EST Tuesday, Dec. 16, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

In light of last month's private space company crashes Space X has become the most viable private space company.

Live streaming the launch  will be available via NASA TV. Live coverage of the launch begins at 1:15 p.m.